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Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream is creamy, refreshing, and chocolatey! Fresh mints were steep in hot cream for 2 hours for maximum flavors. Melted chocolate was drizzled to create small bites of chocolate throughout the ice cream. You don’t know what mint chocolate ice cream is until you have tried this one!

Bryan and I are crazy about ice cream! It doesn’t matter it’s hot or cold day, we are still eating ice cream. We recently discover an ice cream shop near our neighborhood, Smitten Ice Cream. It started in San Francisco. Their first store in Southern California is in El Segundo. They will soon open more stores in Silver Lake and Century City. Smitten has now become our favorite ice cream store.

Smitten is not one of those shops with million flavors. They only have about 5 – 6 flavors each time. Their ice cream is made right in front of you with liquid nitrogen. If it was your first time, you will love to watch the dramatic clouds of smoke and how your ice cream magically appear. But after being there for many times, what we really care about is the texture and the taste of the ice cream. And YES, Smitten’s ice cream is extremely creamy and smooth. The downside is the price. $5 for 2 scoops and $6 for 3 scoops. It’s so expensive! For some seasonal flavors, you even have to pay an extra $1. $7 for a bowl of ice cream? That just sounds so crazy! No matter how much we hate about that, we couldn’t stop going! Their ice cream really stand out.

My go-to is TCHO 60.5% Chocolate. It’s chocolatey and not too sweet. Just what every chocoholic would love! So smooth! Bryan usually go for Cookie Dough with Pretzels and Chocolate Chips. It tastes like cookie dough with the slight saltiness from the pretzels and the little bites of chocolate chips. If Bryan feels like he’s willing to pay a little more and it’s the right time of the year, he would definitely go for Fresh Mint Chip. It’s one of the BEST mint ice cream I ever tried. It’s so fresh and minty. You know it’s really made with fresh mint with no artificial flavor. $7 seems to be totally worth it! And this is what inspired me to make this Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. That way, we can have many many scoops of mint ice cream all to ourselves!

This ice cream is of course made with fresh mints. Creamy, minty, chocolatey and refreshing at the same time! I used about 2 packs of fresh mints and steep them into hot cream for 2 hours. Then you squeeze and extract all the minty flavors into the cream. Mix with egg yolks and sugar. Cook over heat to thicken. Cool and chill overnight. Stir in minced fresh mint to booze the mint flavors. Churn and drizzle in melted chocolate at the last few minutes. The ice cream has just the right texture, with the perfect size of chocolate chips. Just big enough to give you a little bite, but not overly big that make you chewy too much. The mint flavors are strong that wake up your palates and lift up your spirit. What better ice cream can you ask for in a warm summer night? 😉

Instructions

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, add heavy cream and milk. Bring to a simmer. Remove from heat. Stir in mint leaves (NOT the minced ones). Cover with a lid and steep for 2 hours.

In another heavy saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until thicken and pale in color. Strain the cream mixture through a sieve into the egg yolks. Whisk for a minute. Use the back of a spoon to press out as much extract as possible from the mint leaves. Whisk to combine.

Set the saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the mixture is thickened enough to coat the back of the spoon or reaches 170˚F (76˚C). Remove from heat. Stir in salt.

Let the mixture cool at room temperature for 1 hour. Pour the mixture through a fine-meshed sieve into an air-tight container. Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled, about 5 hours or overnight.

When the ice cream mixture is ready to be churned, whisk in the minced fresh mint. Pour the mixture into an ice-cream maker by following the ice-cream maker instruction.

While the ice cream is churning, place the chopped chocolate and the vegetable oil in a small microwave-safe bowl. Mix with a spoon. Microwave for 15 seconds. Stir and microwave for another 15 seconds. Repeat the process until the chocolate is just melted and smooth. Set aside.

At the last 3 minutes of the churning, slowly drizzling in chocolate into the ice cream. For better result, drizzle a tablespoon or so. Let the machine run for a few times. Add another tablespoon of chocolate. Repeat until there is no more chocolate or to your taste.

Transfer the ice-cream to a container and freeze for at least 4 hours before serving.

Notes

Tips:

I used a 61% chocolate bar.

I like the chocolate chips in this ice cream. It is not too hard and the pieces aren’t too big. Even though you have to go for an extra step to melt the chocolate, it’s still better than just throwing in chopped chocolate.

To make smaller pieces of chocolate chips in the ice cream, do a thin drizzle. So, the chocolate can break easily and don’t cluster together.

Reader Interactions

Comments

I just want to dive into this ice cream. Mint chip might well be my very favorite. Honestly, making a mint chip with fresh mint has been something I’ve intended to do but I haven’t (the mint gelato I make uses extract and as good as it is, I’m sure fresh is more insane…). I keep worrying I’ll get the wrong mint and the ice cream will taste like toothpaste! haha. Yours is perfection.

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Hello there!

Welcome! I'm Lokness. Live in Los Angeles & grew up in Hong Kong. Obsessed with chocolate & ice cream. Cooking is something I love. This is where I share my stories and recipes.
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